Did Carl Gallups and Mike Zullo Fabricate More False Claims about President Obama: “Obama is the only President never to visit Mount Vernon”?

Freaky Friday

Mike Zullo, the lead investigator for the Sherriff Arpaio’s Maricopa County Cold Case Posse, appeared yet again on his favorite radio show last week. Zullo spent a full 90 minutes with Pastor Carl Gallups on his  weekly “Freedom Friday” program, which is broadcast on the web and on a small AM station in northwest Florida.

Gallups had hyped the show on the PPSimmons blog and various Birther sites had picked up on the hype for a week and stated that Zullo would release some astonishing new evidence that had been supplied to the CCP “team”. Gallups and Zullo as usual failed to deliver on the hype and there was no “bombshell” or anything new at all for that matter. Gallups made reference to mysterious “VIP’s” who have “come on board” and are “ready to move forward in an official manner”. Of course, none of these “VIP’s” could be named at this time. Gallups said that there were other “VIP’s” who had made promises to do something with the evidence but had reneged on those promises. Gallups promised to out those “VIP’s”. Someone at the Fogbow observed that Gallups’ VIP’s stood for Various Imaginary People.

Zullo took calls for over an hour (interrupted by frequent commercial breaks with ads pushing local yokel businesses that were more entertaining than Gallups’ program).  The calls were mostly Birthers but one Obama supporter managed to get through Gallops call screener to ask Zullo why they did accept John Woodman’s offer to share the results of his hundreds of hours of research into the validity of the LFBC. The caller offered this as proof that Zullo was lying when he claimed that he went into the investigation with no preconceptions. Zullo’s claim is laughable of course. The CCP investigation has never been about the truth but is nothing more than an attempt to slather a veneer of legal respectability on the Birther nonsense claims that someone forged the LFBC that was released to the public by the White House on April 27, 2011.

Gallups cut the caller “Fred” off before Zullo could answer but Zullo became somewhat upset and launched into a tirade against Woodman’s “methods” and claimed that Woodman had never corresponded with the CCP. This claim is false. I contacted John Woodman and he confirmed that he had called the CCP at the number given on their web page and offered to talk to them. No one ever returned his call. Woodman called again when the CCP used the incorrect vital statistics code to try to claim that the wrong code had been used for Barack Obama’s father’s race on the LFBC. John asked for a copy of the source for the codes that were displayed in the presentation last July at a CCP press conference run by Mike Zullo. Again no one contacted Woodman. Zullo also falsely claimed that Woodman gave up the computer business. He has not and is still in business. Woodman retired from blogging about Birthers because he considers the issue over now that Barack Obama has been elected a second time and said there is nothing left to discuss.

George Washington Slept There

Near the end of the program Gallups and Zullo talked about their visit to Washington, D. C. to attend the recent CPAC 2013. Gallups and Zullo had discussed their contact with “VIP’s” at the conference on the program the previous Friday. They said that on the final morning of the trip they toured Mount Vernon, George Washington’s famous estate. Gallups claimed they asked their tour guide if President Obama had ever visited Mount Vernon. Gallups said the guide “looked at us and said Barack Obama is the only President in US history never to set foot on this property”. Zullo and Gallups then used this to smear President Obama claiming that the guide “was almost in tears when he said it”.

I thought this claim sounded odd and of course considering the sources’ track record I assumed it was false. The entire claim is a red herring. How does visiting Mount Vernon equate with patriotism and ones ability to govern? As it turns out my instincts were correct. The claim that Obama is the only President never visit Mount Vernon is bogus. Is it possible that the tour guide was that badly misinformed? Yes, but this story has all the earmarks of a tall tale shaped to fit their anti-Obama agenda.

Yesterday I contacted Mount Vernon and they said the best way to check out this claim was to post the question on the “Ask Mount Vernon” section of the Mount Vernon web site. I received my answer quickly. First, the claim President Obama has not visited Mount Vernon, yet, is correct. However I note that he is only in the very early part of his second term of course. Also, the a new library devoted to the study of George Washington is being constructed and is scheduled to open in September 2013. There is a good chance that the President will be there for the dedication. The First Lady and their daughters have visited Mount Vernon. But what about all the other presidents whom Gallups and Zullo claimed all set foot at Mount Vernon? Well the first president did of course.  As it turns out almost half of the remaining presidents never came to Mount Vernon,  21 in total. Among those who are not recorded as ever visiting are Jefferson, Monroe, Madison, Nixon, Carter, and Clinton.

Unlike Mike Zullo I will name my source. She is Mary V. Thompson. Ms Thompson is the research historian at Mount Vernon. She was kind enough to supply the following information:

As you will see from the list below of presidents who did come to Mount Vernon, there are obviously quite a few who did not, or at least, for whom we have no record of a visit, including President Clinton. In the case of Presidents Clinton and Obama, their wives have visited Mount Vernon.

Presidents

President John Adams: “His Excellency John Adams arrived at this place [Alexandria, Virginia] yesterday. He was escorted by a troop of cavalry into town….The President is on a visit to Mount Vernon, from whence he will return on Wednesday, and partake of a public dinner to which he has been invited by the citizens of Alexandria.” (June 10-11, 1800)

President Andrew Jackson (11/1815)

President James K. Polk: Came to Mount Vernon with his wife, Sarah Childress Polk, and former First Lady, Dolley Payne Madison. (June (?) 1845)
President Millard Fillmore: Came with a group of people to assess whether Mount Vernon would make a suitable home for soldiers. While there, he cut down a tree about 40 yards from the Tomb for a flag staff for a Mr. Duncan, “who is going to the Holy Land and wished a flag staff from Mount Vernon on which to raise the American flag on his journeys” (March 1851).

President Abraham Lincoln: Made a visit to Mount Vernon on the steamer with some friends and family members (April 2, 1862). John Dahlgren of the Washington Navy Yard wrote that he came to Mount Vernon that day “with the President, some members of his family, and others. I advised the President not to land, and remained in the boat with him.” According to one source, “[a]lthough the property was considered neutral territory during the war, real security issues remained, so it’s unlikely Lincoln visited the estate during his presidency.”

President Rutherford B. Hayes: Made an unexpected visit to Mount Vernon with his wife (Illustration) (6/18/1878)

President Benjamin Harrison: Came out with a large official group, including his Vice President, Levi P. Morton (Illustration) (5/1889)

President William McKinley: Accompanied by members of his Cabinet; attended the ceremonies commemorating the 100th anniversary of George Washington’s death (Illustration) (12/14/1899)

President Theodore Roosevelt (1907/1908)

President William Howard Taft: Placed a wreath at the Tomb of George Washington. Later, as former president, came to Mount Vernon with a group from the American Bar Association; planted a tree (1912, 1914)

President Woodrow Wilson (1914, 1915, 1917, 1918)

President Calvin Coolidge (1925)

President Herbert Hoover: He and Mrs. Hoover made an “unheralded” visit on George Washington’s birthday in 1930, when they spent a few minutes inside Washington’s tomb “paying silent tribute.” Two years later, they came to Mount Vernon to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Washington’s birth (Illustration) (2/22/1930, 2/22/1932)

President Franklin Roosevelt: The Roosevelts made many visits to Mount Vernon; the 1st undertaken by the President appears to have been in 1933 (Illustration). On April 14, 1939, the Roosevelts escorted President and Mrs Samoza of Nicaragua on a visit to Mount Vernon (Illustration). Three years later, on January 8, 1942, and on August 6, 1942, the President brought British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, respectively, to see Washington’s Tomb (Illustrations). The following year, on Washington’s birthday, the President and First Lady returned with Madame Chiang Kai-Chek (Illustration) (1933, 1934, 1936, 1937, 1939, 1942, 1943)

President Harry S. Truman (1947)

President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1958)

President John F. Kennedy: Hosted a state dinner for President Ayub Khan of Pakistan, with Mrs. Kennedy (Illustration) (1961)

President Lyndon Baines Johnson (1961)

President Gerald R. Ford (1961, 1976)

President Ronald Reagan: Came to Mount Vernon with Mrs. Reagan to commemorate the 250th birthday of George Washington (Illustration) (2/1982)

President George H.W. Bush: Flew down in the presidential helicopter with Jordan’s King Hussein for a short visit (Illustration) (4/19/1989)

President George W. Bush: Paid a visit with Mrs. Bush on the Presidents’ Day holiday (2/19/2007); came back in November of the same year to meet with the new president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy (Illustration). The meeting was described as follows: “These two powerful allies and a handful of their most trusted advisors sequestered themselves in Washington’s Large Dining Room to discuss conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere. The press conference that followed had the Mansion’s cupola, with its symbolic Dove of Peace weathervane, as an appropriate backdrop.”

Notice that several previous Presidents visited on special occasions. For example, President Reagan visited on the 250th anniversary of Washington’s birth. George W. Bush only went near the end of his presidency in the seventh year. Are Zullo and Gallups questioning Bush’s patriotism? What about the ones who never went?  How ironic that Zullo and Gallups would either fabricate this story or fail to do even one bit of research to check out a weird claim by a tour guide that I easily debunked and in the process drag in our very first President who supposedly never told a fib.

Where’s the Beef?

The much ballyhooed radio appearance by Zullo with Gallups didn’t play well even with the gullible Birthers who seem to have hung on Zullo’s every  “any time now” utterance for over a year. Here is just a sample or two from Obama Ballot Challenge:

Carl loves to hear himself talk and he is good at it. He had to fill up 2 hrs, less the interminable “breaks,” because Zullo had astonishingly little new material to inform us about. He’s been giving an abbreviated, updated version of his 3-1-12 press conference, for over a year. Step right up, keep those contributions flowing in folks. Carl has been making dramatic, entertaining, but nearly content-free youtubes about it for months. Another overpromise and under-delivery

and

…Did I listen to the broadcast today? Absolutely not as I believed nothing new would be forthcoming. From what I’ve read, I was correct in my assessment. I apologize to those good folks who have been expecting more and not seeing results. I was told this investigation would be done with the “utmost diligence.” To say the least, I am disappointed how my request is currently being handled. We’re talking about saving America. We’re not talking about putting on a three ring circus act! Nothing has happened in my opinion since March 1, 2012. It’s time to get an active duty MCSO investigator, who is paid by the county to complete this criminal investigation, one way or another. This truly is disappointing.

Of course  this commenter is wrong. There is no way Joe Arpaio is going to put a real investigator on this because he knows it is all a sham and he would have to answer to the taxpayers for wasting any more paid resources on this farce. He already caught flack from the local media and the county board of supervisors for spending $10,000 sending a deputy ostensibly to protect Zullo when he went to Hawaii last year to harass officials there and pester a 90 year old lady, former Hawaii Registrar Verna K. Lee.

Even at the crazy ORYR/Birther Report blog the commenters were asking “Where’s the beef”?

You can read my previous blogs posts on Mike Zullo and the Cold Case Posse at this link: https://rcradioblog.wordpress.com/?s=zullo+cold+case+posse+